Business Assistance

As of May 13, 2020

County grants available for small businesses

Volusia County is accepting applications beginning at 9 a.m. Thursday, May 14, for a $10 million grant program aimed at helping small businesses recover financially from the COVID-19 pandemic. Local businesses that meet the criteria, including having no more than 25 full-time employees or the equivalent number of part-time employees, can qualify for a one-time, $3,000 grant under the program.To qualify for the county grant program, businesses must certify that they suffered a financial impact of at least $3,000 due to COVID-19, and that the loss wasn’t reimbursed by insurance or some other governmental assistance program. Qualifying impacts can be anything from a loss of revenue due to an interruption in business to the cost of installing things like plexiglass dividers, UV sanitizing cabinets and hand sanitizing stations needed to resume normal business operations. With 12,000 small businesses in Volusia County, there’s enough money for approximately 3,300 of them to receive a county grant. Applications will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis, with the application posted on the county’s new Volusia Business Resources website, click on “County.”For small businesses to qualify, they must be a physical business located in a commercial or industrial space, licensed to operate in Volusia County or the local city where they’re located if a license is required and were operational and actively conducting business in Volusia County on or before Dec. 1, 2019. Tax exempt businesses and businesses that are either a publicly traded company or a subsidiary of a publicly traded company don’t qualify for the program. A complete list of qualification criteria is listed on the county’s new Volusia Business Resources website, click on “County.”

Volusia County launched a comprehensive and collaborative economic recovery website to serve as a countywide source of assistance and incentive program information for businesses. The website features federal, state, regional, county and private-sector resources and includes direct links to Volusia County’s cities’ resources pages.

The Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce has established a website with information for businesses affected by COVID-19.

The governor has activated the Emergency Bridge Loan program for small businesses impacted by COVID-19.

The bridge loan program, managed by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, will provide short-term, interest-free loans to small businesses that experienced economic injury from COVID-19.

For questions regarding the Emergency Bridge Loan Program, contact the Florida Small Business Development Center Network at 866-737-7232 or email Disaster@FloridaSBDC.org.

The governor also has an Emergency Business Damage Assessment survey for COVID-19.

The survey, managed by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO), will evaluate businesses affected by COVID-19 and the impacts the virus has had on the local economy so actions to implement appropriate relief programs can begin.

Businesses and non-profits can access the Business Damage Assessment survey at FloridaDisaster.BIZ Select “COVID-19” from the drop-down menu on the survey page.

Response to the Business Damage Assessment survey is not an application for assistance.

Florida has been approved for the U.S. Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. For more information, visit www.SBA.gov/disaster.